From: Glen Buchbaum |
Although the proposed benefits might make sense in theory, there are many variables which I am sure you will consider and I'd like to give you my feedback as a consumer, investor and a business owner on. 1) Access to home computers; What percentage of individuals have access to home computers? Although I have a home computer, I am unwilling to read any lengthy documents, books, booklets, etc... on screen. My preference, as I think most would be, would be to print it out and read hard copy. So the question lies as to whether the average investor is willing to go through the time, expense (paper and ink cartridges) and trouble to output both a 20pp proxy statement and a 60pp 10k/annual report. I know as an investor I would elect to receive hard copy and read at my own leisure in my office, bathroom, bedroom, etc..., and assume it an Issuer expense. Now what has occurred, is a secondary cost for the postcard notification and then an additional cost for having to mail the full package anyway. 2) What does such an action do to the US Economy and Unemployment Rates.The financial printing industry is a 3 billion dollar + /year industry. I don't think the advent of such a delivery method would reap the financial results the printing industry enjoys and would lose. Likewise the tens of thousands jobs that would be lost as a result would not be replaced by technology based jobs as electronic delivery/posting is a pretty simple task to accomplish and could probably be absorbed into current technology based companies' infrastructure. 3) Increased proxy fights and dissident shareholder activity So many dissidents and activists have been hesitant to launch "weak" campaigns against the issuer because of the costs of doing so. This may open the door for unsubstantiated fights and "lets cause some trouble fights", and cause increased legal fees and wasted time and effort on part of the issuer. I can certainly understand offering e-delivery/posting as an ALTERNATIVE OR AS AN OPTION as I believe is happening now, but to make it the NORM is not appropriate at this time. There are stats available as to the offering of e-delivery and small percentages that agree and I believe this shows that the investment community is JUST NOT READY for this yet. -------------------------------------------- Glen Buchbaum |